Method for Producing an Arcuate Striking Faceplate of a Golf Club Head

ABSTRACT

A method for producing an arcuate striking faceplate of a golf club head is provided to simplify current procedures for further reducing the manufacturing costs. The method includes a material preparation step including preparing a sheet material to be processed, with the sheet material including a first surface and a second surface opposite to the first surface; a formation step including press-shaping the sheet material obtained from the material preparation step at least one time by at least one mold to shape the sheet material into an arcuate shape and to provide the first surface of the sheet material with uneven height; and a trimming step including using a lathe to mill the second surface of the sheet material obtained from the formation step to form a striking face and to provide the sheet material with uneven thickness, obtaining a striking faceplate for a golf club head.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a method for producing a part of a golf club head and, more particularly, to a method for producing an arcuate striking faceplate of a golf club head.

2. Description of the Related Art

A golf club head generally includes uneven thickness structure on an inner side of a striking faceplate to increase the area of the sweet spot, thereby providing enhanced hitting performance. In an early approach, a computer numerical control (CNC) machine is used to read electronic drawing files and uses various cutters to directly proceed with three dimensional (3D) cutting. However, this method has a high equipment cost, high material waste rate, high consumption rate of the cutters, and low processing efficiency. Thus, it is difficult to reduce the manufacturing costs.

People engaged in the related industries have conducted researches in recent years for the purposes of developing better methods for reducing the manufacturing costs of striking faceplates. As an example, China Patent Application No. 201110281182.0 entitled “METHOD FOR PRODUCING A STRIKING FACEPLATE OF A GOLF CLUB HEAD” discloses an improved method for producing a striking faceplate. With reference to FIGS. 1 a-1 e, the method includes: preparing a sheet material 9 (FIG. 1 a); placing the sheet material 9 in a mold having a simple curved face to obtain a sheet material 9 with roughly uneven thickness structure 91 by pressing or forging at least one time (FIG. 1 b); placing the sheet material 9 in a mold having a more precisely curved face to obtain the sheet material 9 having precise, uneven thickness structure 92 by pressing or forging at least one time (FIG. 1 c), milling a surface of the sheet material 9 to form a striking face 93 (FIG. 1 d); and using a mold having a curvature to shape the sheet material 9 to provide the sheet material 9 with a curvature and to make the striking face 93 arcuate, obtaining a striking faceplate product (FIG. 1 e). Thus, this method can firstly shape uneven thickness structure on a surface of the striking faceplate and then milling the other surface of the striking faceplate, significantly reducing the material waste. The consumption rate of cutters of the milling machine is reduced, and the time for processing is shortened, saving the manufacturing costs and increasing the yield.

However, formation of the uneven thickness structure and the bending-shaping of the sheet material are carried out separately, causing a bottleneck to increasing the production efficiency and reduction of the manufacturing costs. Furthermore, this method carries out the bending-shaping after formation of the uneven thickness structure, such that the uneven thickness structure will deform slightly after bending. The finally formed uneven thickness structure of the striking faceplate cannot be identical to the preset shape. Furthermore, erroneous large deformation could occur during the bending procedure, resulting in a defective product. Thus, there is still room for improvement to this conventional method.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An objective of the present invention is to provide a method for producing an arcuate striking faceplate of a golf club head. A workpiece is shaped to have a pre-determined curvature while shaping a surface of the workpiece to have an uneven height, further simplifying the procedures to save the manufacturing costs.

Another objective of the present invention is to provide a method for producing an arcuate striking faceplate of a golf club head to assure that the uneven thickness structure after formation will not deform, increasing the quality of the product of the striking faceplate.

The present invention fulfills the above objectives by providing a method for producing an arcuate striking faceplate of a golf club head. The method includes a material preparation step including preparing a sheet material to be processed, with the sheet material including a first surface and a second surface opposite to the first surface; a formation step including press-shaping the sheet material obtained from the material preparation step at least one time by at least one mold to shape the sheet material into an arcuate shape and to provide the first surface of the sheet material with uneven height; and a trimming step including using a lathe to mill the second surface of the sheet material obtained from the formation step to form a striking face and to provide the sheet material with uneven thickness, obtaining a striking faceplate for a golf club head.

In an example, the lathe is a crank lathe when a longitudinal curvature of the striking faceplate to be produced is different from a lateral curvature of the striking faceplate to be produced.

In an embodiment, the formation step includes a rough mold formation step and a precision mold formation step, a mold having a simple curved face is used to press-shape the sheet material in the rough mold formation step, and a mold having a more precisely curved face is used to press-shape the sheet material in the precision mold formation step.

The method can further include a post treatment step after the trimming step. The post treatment step includes sandblasting the first surface and the striking face of the sheet material to remove oxides and/or impurities on the first surface and the striking face of the sheet material.

In an embodiment, the striking face has a radius of curvature in a range from 160 mm to 600 mm.

In an embodiment, the at least one mold and the sheet material obtained from the material preparation step are heated before press-shaping in the formation step.

In an embodiment, the formation step further includes forming an anti-oxidation layer on each of the first and second surfaces of the sheet material before press-shaping the sheet material.

The method for producing an arcuate striking faceplate of a golf club head according to the present invention can shape a workpiece to have a pre-determined curvature while shaping a surface of the workpiece to have uneven height, further simplifying the procedures. Furthermore, low-cost lathes can be used to proceed with milling of the striking face. The manufacturing costs are reduced.

In the method for producing an arcuate striking faceplate of a golf club head according to the present invention, subsequent bending of the workpiece is not required after formation of the uneven thickness structure. This assures that the finally formed uneven thickness structure will not deform, improving the quality of striking faceplate products.

The present invention will become clearer in light of the following detailed description of illustrative embodiments of this invention described in connection with the drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The illustrative embodiments may best be described by reference to the accompanying drawings where:

FIG. 1 a is a cross sectional view of a sheet material for producing an arcuate striking faceplate of a golf club head according to the prior art.

FIG. 1 b is a cross sectional view of the sheet material after a rough mold formation step according to the prior art.

FIG. 1 c is a cross sectional view of the sheet material after a precision mold formation step according to the prior art.

FIG. 1 d is a cross sectional view of the sheet material after a milling step according to the prior art.

FIG. 1 e is a cross sectional view of the sheet material after shaping with a mold with a curvature according to the prior art.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a method for producing an arcuate striking faceplate of a golf club head according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 a is a cross sectional view of a sheet material for producing an arcuate striking faceplate of a golf club head according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 b is a cross sectional view of the sheet material after press-shaping according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 c is a cross sectional view of the sheet material after a precision mold formation step according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 d is a cross sectional view of the sheet material after a milling step according to the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

With reference to FIG. 2, a method for producing an arcuate striking faceplate of a golf club head according to the present invention includes a material preparation step S1, a formation step S2, and a trimming step S3. The formation step S2 includes press-shaping a sheet material obtained from the material preparation step S1 to shape the sheet material into an arcuate shape and to provide a surface of the sheet material with uneven height. The other surface of the sheet material is milled in the trimming step S3 to provide the sheet material with uneven thickness, thereby forming an arcuate striking faceplate with uneven thickness.

With reference to FIGS. 2 and 3 a, the material preparation step S1 includes preparing a sheet material 1 to be processed. Specifically, in this embodiment, a cutting machine (such as a laser cutting machine) is used to cut a substrate into a plurality of sheet materials 1 for subsequent processing, with each sheet material 1 having an outline similar to a contour of a product.

The sheet material 1 includes a first surface 11 and a second surface 12 opposite to the first surface 11. Preferably, the sheet material 1 is made of a metal having a higher deforming capability or higher shocking capability, such as carbon steel, stainless steel (such as 17-4PH stainless steel), alloy steel, nickel-based alloy, cast iron, super alloy steel, Fe—Mn—Al alloy, titanium alloy, copper alloy, aluminum alloy, magnesium alloy, or combinations thereof.

With reference to FIGS. 2 and 3 b, the formation step S2 includes press-shaping the sheet material 1 obtained from the material preparation step S1 at lease one time by at least one mold to shape the sheet material 1 into an arcuate shape and to provide the first surface 11 of the sheet material 1 with uneven height. The sheet material 1 can be press-shaped by pressing or forging. In this embodiment, the sheet material 1 is forged. However, the method according to the present invention is not limited to forging.

In this embodiment, the formation step S2 includes a rough mold formation step S21 and a precision mold formation step S22. In the rough mold formation step S21, a mold having a simple curved face is used to press-shape the sheet material 1. Specifically, the sheet material 1 and the mold having a simple curved face are heated, and the sheet material 1 is placed into the mold and press-shaped by the mold to provide the sheet material 1 with a curved shape and to initially provide the first surface 11 of the sheet material 1 with uneven height. The heating temperature for the sheet material 1 and the mold can be set according to the material of the sheet material 1, which can be appreciated by one having ordinary skill in the art, and the heating temperature preferably does not exceed the crystallization temperature of the sheet material 1.

Furthermore, an anti-oxidation layer can be selectively formed on a surface of the sheet material 1 according to the material characteristics of the sheet material 1 for reducing oxides generated during heating and shaping of the sheet material 1. Namely, an anti-oxidization layer is preferably formed on the surface of the sheet material 1 if the sheet material 1 is made of an easy-to-oxidize metal (such as titanium). Conversely, it is not necessary to form an anti-oxidization layer on the surface of the sheet material 1 if the sheet material 1 is made of a metal that does not oxidize easily (such as steel). In this embodiment, an anti-oxidization agent is sprayed onto the first and second surfaces 11 and 12 of sheet material 1 to form the anti-oxidization layer after the anti-oxidization agent dries.

Likewise, if the sheet material 1 is made of an easy-to-oxidize metal, before the precision mold formation step S22, an anti-oxidization layer is preferably coated on the first and second surfaces 11 and 12 of the sheet material 1 obtained from the rough mold formation step S21 to provide the deformation area of the sheet material 1 with an anti-oxidization effect. Conversely, it is not necessary to form an anti-oxidation layer on the surface of the sheet material 1 obtained from the rough mold formation step S21 if the sheet material 1 is made of a metal that does not oxidize easily.

With reference to FIGS. 2 and 3 c, a mold having a more precisely curved face is used in the precision mold formation step S22 to press-shape the sheet material 1. Specifically, since a temperature drop phenomenon occurs when the sheet material 1 obtained from the rough mold formation step S21 flows in the production line. The temperature could even drop to room temperature. Thus, when carrying out the precision mold formation step S22, the sheet material 1 and the mold having a more precisely curved face must be pre-heated to a temperature not exceeding the crystallization temperature of the sheet material 1. Then, the sheet material 1 is placed into the mold and is press-shaped to make the first surface 11 of the sheet material 1 have obviously uneven height. Furthermore, the sheet material 1 has an appropriate curvature for coupling to a golf club head. The sheet material 1 can have a radius of curvature in a range from 160 mm to 600 mm.

With reference to FIGS. 2, 3 c, and 3 d, in the trimming step S3, the sheet material 1 obtained from the precision mold formation step S22 is cooled to an appropriate temperature (such as room temperature), and a lathe is used to mill the second surface 12 of the sheet material 1 obtained from the formation step S2 to form a striking face 13 and to provide the sheet material 1 with uneven thickness 14 matching the desired shape. While milling the sheet material 1, in a case that a longitudinal curvature of the striking face 13 is the same as a lateral curvature of the striking face 13, an ordinary lathe with suitable cutters can be used to mill the second surface 12 of the sheet material 1 into a plan, arcuate face to form the striking face 13. On the other hand, if the longitudinal curvature of the striking face 13 is different from the lateral curvature of the striking face 13, a crank lathe can be used to mill the whole arcuate face in batches or cooperates with a clamp to accomplish one-time milling of the arcuate face.

A post treatment step S4 can be carried out after the trimming step S3 to trim the sheet material 1, obtaining a high-quality striking faceplate product for a golf club head. Specifically, the post treatment step S4 includes sandblasting the first surface 11 and the striking face 13 of the sheet material 1 by silica sands, aluminum oxide, iron sands, aluminum beads, or iron beads, removing the oxides and/or impurities formed on the first surface 11 and the striking face 13 of the sheet material 1 and completing formation of the striking faceplate for a golf club head according to the present invention. If desired, a type number, words, or trademark can be formed on a surface (such as the striking face 13) of the sheet material 1 by laser carving to improve the product identification effect.

In view of the foregoing, the method for producing an arcuate striking faceplate of a golf club head according to the present invention can shape a workpiece to have a pre-determined curvature while shaping a surface of the workpiece to have uneven height, further simplifying the procedures. Furthermore, low-cost lathes can be used to proceed with milling of the striking face 13. Overall, the manufacturing costs are reduced.

In the method for producing an arcuate striking faceplate of a golf club head according to the present invention, the workpiece is shaped to have a pre-determined curvature while shaping a surface of the workpiece to have uneven height, such that subsequent bending of the workpiece is not required. This assures that the finally formed uneven thickness structure of the striking faceplate can maintain the predetermined shape without the risk of deformation during bending. Thus, the golf club head can provide the expected sweat area to improve the hitting performance. Thus, the method according to the present invention improves the quality of striking faceplate products.

Thus since the invention disclosed herein may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or general characteristics thereof, some of which forms have been indicated, the embodiments described herein are to be considered in all respects illustrative and not restrictive. The scope of the invention is to be indicated by the appended claims, rather than by the foregoing description, and all changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are intended to be embraced therein. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for producing an arcuate striking faceplate of a golf club head comprising: a material preparation step including preparing a sheet material to be processed, with the sheet material including a first surface and a second surface opposite to the first surface; a formation step including press-shaping the sheet material obtained from the material preparation step at least one time by at least one mold to shape the sheet material into an arcuate shape and to provide the first surface of the sheet material with uneven height; and a trimming step including using a lathe to mill the second surface of the sheet material obtained from the formation step to form a striking face and to provide the sheet material with uneven thickness, obtaining a striking faceplate for a golf club head.
 2. The method for producing an arcuate striking faceplate of a golf club head as claimed in claim 1, wherein the lathe is a crank lathe when a longitudinal curvature of the striking faceplate to be produced is different from a lateral curvature of the striking faceplate to be produced.
 3. The method for producing an arcuate striking faceplate of a golf club head as claimed in claim 1, wherein the formation step includes a rough mold formation step and a precision mold formation step, a mold having a simple curved face is used to press-shape the sheet material in the rough mold formation step, and a mold having a more precisely curved face is used to press-shape the sheet material in the precision mold formation step.
 4. The method for producing an arcuate striking faceplate of a golf club head as claimed in claim 1, further comprising: a post treatment step after the trimming step, with the post treatment step including sandblasting the first surface and the striking face of the sheet material to remove oxides and/or impurities on the first surface and the striking face of the sheet material.
 5. The method for producing an arcuate striking faceplate of a golf club head as claimed in claim 1, wherein the striking face has a radius of curvature in a range from 160 mm to 600 mm.
 6. The method for producing an arcuate striking faceplate of a golf club head as claimed in claim 1, wherein the at least one mold and the sheet material obtained from the material preparation step are heated before press-shaping in the formation step.
 7. The method for producing an arcuate striking faceplate of a golf club head as claimed in claim 1, wherein the formation step further includes forming an anti-oxidation layer on each of the first and second surfaces of the sheet material before press-shaping the sheet material. 